We all know about Chicago faililng to score the 2016 Olympics. But I imagine other US cities have put forth failing bids for other Olympics as well. What are some?
*Cities that have hosted Olympics, but put forth failed bids in preceeding or succeeding Olympics, don’t count.
New York tried and failed.
Not a failed bid, but Denver was supposed to host the Winter Olympics in 76 but backed out due to funding problems. I think voters turned down the funding plan. Innsbruck Austria took their spot.
Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis.
And for the Winter Olympics, it’s
Anchorage, Yosemite Valley,Lake Tahoe, Bear Mountain and Duluth (all except Anchorage were in 1932)
Not an American city but I have a t-shirt promoting the Toronto Olympics.
I guess Salt Lake City did not offer enough bribes for the 98 games. They corrected that problem for 2002.
Either that or Nagano, Japan outbribed them 
On Youtube, there’s a bunch of promotional movies from Detroit produced for Olympic bids. They’re quite laughable.
Take Lake Tahoe off that list. Squaw Valley hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics; while not the same entity that placed the bid for the 1932 games, it’s only five miles from the lake.
I was going to mention Cleveland. Municipal Stadium, former home of the Indians and the former Browns, was originally built as an Olympic stadium. I don’t know if standards were just lower then, or if the relatively small size of the stadium was part of the reason Cleveland got passed over.
Detroit and Olympics should never be in the same sentance together. Gary, Indiana would possibly be a better choice.
I had heard this for years, but the Wikipedia article says the Olympics had already been awarded to LA by the time ground was broken on Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Besides, Municipal Stadium was pretty big. It was bigger than Olympic Stadium in Montreal, host of the 1976 games.
From this site, you can find information on past Olympic bids since 1904.
Kind of amazing that some of those places were in the running for '32. Given how difficult and expensive long distance travel was, and how concentrated the media and population were then, Bear Mountain (just 50 mi from NYC) would have been the most sensible pick if you wanted the international press and tourism in any numbers. Even Lake Placid turned out to be too far to travel for most during a depression, which no one in '29 could have known.
Also bidding for that year were Montreal, Minneapolis, and Denver. Montreal might have been a possibility, but holding the '32 Winter Games anywhere else would have made them strictly local news. There just wasn’t the money to travel to events in such places, and maybe not even the interest. It’s hard enough to believe LA got the Summer Games. It was much less of a metropolis then than now.
It’s a mystery why Houston has never made a serious bid for the Winter Olympics.
Vancover is proving that you don’t need snow. Houston has a big petrochemical industry - surely there’s technology for making a good snow substitute, perhaps in a novel color similar to what Boise State has for its artificial turf football field.
Skating would be easy someplace like the Astrodome. And you could adapt the biathlon so that skiers are shooting at more realistic targets in certain neighborhoods.
Texans are can-do people. It’s only a matter of time.
I don’t think the I-10 off ramps would make a good slalom course, though.
You must keep in mind that hosting an Olympics (especially the Winter Games) wasn’t the big deal that it is today. The '80 Olympics were in Lake Placid, NY. The arena where the infamous “Miracle on Ice” hockey game was played only held about 3000 spectators [although you can find about 100,000 people that swear they were there]. Lake Placid has been milking the game ever since. The Olympics has about a zero chance of ever returning to the site.
It’s a whole different ballgame these days.
The Olympics (summer and winter) were in bad shape around 1980 , they were losing a lot of money and then the US boycotted the summer games in 80 which made things worse. The LA games in 84 really turned things around since they made a profit despite the Soviet block boycott. The Soviet block boycott helped the US win more medals which got Americans more interested in the games.
Lake Placid actually held the Winter Olympics twice, in 1932 and 1980.